Canada’s GDP remains steady following 0.3 percent growth in April

A new report from Statistics Canada found that GDP remained steady in from April through May, plateauing at just over $2 trillion.

According to Statistics Canada, GDP across most industries neither rose nor fell in May, with growth in service-producing industries being offset by declines in goods-producing industries.

Notable exceptions were Arts, entertainment and recreation, which saw 2.6 percent growth, as well as transportation and warehousing, whose growth was measured at 1.9 percent.

While the transportation sector is experiencing the highest consecutive four-month increases since 1997, due in large part to an uptick in air transport, it is still around 7 percent below pre-pandemic levels of February 2020.

On the flipside, both industrial production and manufacturing saw declines of 1 and 1.7 percent respectively, the first time the sectors have gone negative in eight months.

Construction also contracted for the second month in a row, which Statistics Canada said was influenced by the fact that many of Ontario's unionized construction workers were on strike in May, halting or delaying many ongoing projects.

The sector that slid the furthest, however, was Management of companies and enterprises, which posted a decline of 4.7 percent.

As Global News reports, despite the plateauing of overall GDP, there are expectations that Canada's economy will grow in Q2 2022. This, in turn, has led many to predict another hike in interest rates by the Bank of Canada.

On July 13, the BoC increased the key interest rate to 2.5 percent, up 1 percent from their previous announcement in June.